final reflection

                Coming into this semester English was one of my classes I worried about. Reading and writing was one of my weakest points and I was never very good at it. This class has completely changed my opinion English, especially writing. This course was a lot of hard work but Professor Thomas made sure we were all prepared for our papers and other work. My first paper was about my mom so it was on the easier side but the next paper that was assigned was a summary and analysis on the book sway. Starting this paper put a damper on my confidence, I was lost. One thing that helped me substantially was the teacher conference on two of our papers. Having that one on one time to meet with Mrs. Thomas and get her feedback made it clear on what I needed to work on to make my paper better. This also helped me on avoiding making the same mistakes for my next paper. Another thing that helped was the preparation for each paper. For example, things like reading and annotating older student’s paper before beginning ours. Creating info graphics and getting involved in our work keep the class interesting and made me want to dig deeper into my research. These ideas helped to improve my writing in many ways.  

            As I am finishing this class I can see all the improvements I’ve made. Everything I have learned I will take with me through my following semesters. Even though I have learned many things to make me a better writer I still have some weaknesses. I can work on my writing skills by learning to add more research and create better transitions so my papers flow better.  For research papers such as my last paper in this course, I need to add more of my own voice and commentary throughout the paper. Next semester I will need to work on forming my thesis statements. Another thing that I also would like to improve would be my understanding of technology and how to properly use it to communicate my thoughts into my papers.

When class started I didn’t know if all the computer usage was going to benefit of confuse me. In the end using all the technology in this course was a lot of help surprisingly. Things such as Digo and our blogs made it easier to keep track of papers, get feedback and review other peoples work. This course also helped me become comfortable with other internet sources such as Prezi, Infogram, and Blogger. All around I think the technology and other tools introduced throughout the semester were extremely helpful in making this course very beneficial. I am very excited to be in Professor Thomas’s class next semester!

rough draft of final essay

Kristen Ott

Composition 101: rough draft

Professor Thomas

7 December 2012       

Hurricane Sandy: The Aftermath

            In early October a massive tropical cyclone stormed through the Caribbean and up the Eastern coast of the United States. The storm was labeled hurricane Sandy, and would cause mass panic within the major cities of North Eastern coast. Hurricane Sandy started in the Caribbean on October 19 and quickly developed from a small tropical depression to a tropical storm in just six hours. On October 24^th Sandy hit its maximum speeds of 74 mile per hour and was labeled a hurricane. That same day Sandy struck Jamaica, moving through open water gaining strength. Within the next three days the storm would also strike Cuba and most of the islands within the Bahamas. On October 29^th Sandy hit Atlantic City, New Jersey, with winds of 80 miles per hour.

            Within minutes the streets of New Jersey were flooded, trees and power lines had fallen, and houses were ripped apart. Jillian Berman states in the Huffington Post, that hurricane Sandy will amount to between 30 to 50 billion dollars in economic losses. Community cooperation in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy is a good example of how residents come together even when first aid and government are slow to react. Hurricane Sandy’s recovery was the focus in the media coverage for almost a month then slowly died out without real relief for the families.

            As you can imagine the word hurricane is scary as is. Growing up in New Jersey my whole life made it absolutely terrifying to me. Not only was hurricane sandy heading straight for my home, it was heading towards my family. As I watched all the horrible sights on TV I worried for my family and the condition our home was in. My family was amongst the lucky ones that experienced barely any damage caused by the storm. A few weeks after the storm I went home to see my family. Seeing playgrounds and beaches that I grew up at destroyed and demolished made all the horrifying stories surreal. It opened my eyes to all the devastation and destruction the storm had caused, as well as the traumatic experiences the residents went through.

            When thinking of all the residents who lost their homes, valuables, and even their lives, it is easy to imagine what dramatic experiences they went through. With flooding ruining houses, people without power, and no way of transportation the residents of New Jersey are left helpless. Not only has hurricane Sandy affected the lives of those across the country; it has also affected the housing market. With whole neighborhoods demolished in New Jersey residents could see a decline in their real estate in the future. Water damaged soil, houses, and erosion are just a few of the issue at hand. “Hurricane Sandy’s immediate impact on real estate in the hardest hit Northeastern neighborhoods is already painfully evident.” (Brennan) Not only has the storm affected the market for housing in New Jersey, but it has also affected all of the markets within the United States.

            With standing water and rubble littering the streets of New Jersey, thousands of volunteers jump into action to help rebuild the cities. In New York, five thousand temporary workers were hired to help rebuild and clean up the damage from the massive storm. The New York Times reports, “About $27 million in federal Labor Department money will finance the cleanup and rebuilding positions in New York City and eight nearby counties, paying about $15 per hour and generally lasting about six months, state and federal officials said.” FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is also offering seven hundred temporary jobs to help in the relieve efforts.

            With government agencies such as FEMA working to help relieve the areas struck by hurricane Sandy, it shows how well the United States government responded to the disaster. With government temporary government workers being paid to clean up damages and rebuild, as well as those who are helping the community; the government is still working to improve conditions. With so much damage to cities the price of rebuilding is only going up. According to the New York Times it is estimated that over thirty-two billion will be needed to repair the housing and infrastructures.  Another ten billion dollars will be used to help further protect the transit systems, the sewage treatments facilities, as well as the power networks.

            The United States government was struck with questions after being accused of taking too long to react to the damages in the Eastern cities. With people stranded in flooded homes, and left without food, water, and electricity; they soon turned and began to blame the U.S. government agencies such as FEMA and Red Cross. While the public was being supplied with public housing, bathrooms, food, and many other resources people still complained about things that the government was providing for them. With some parts of the cities unreachable due to flooding and damaged roads, the government did as much as they could at the time. With over seventy-five hundred volunteers from the FEMA organization, they launched their efforts to help rebuild and clean up the damages caused by Sandy.

            With the aftermath of the storm, the media began to relay the disturbing visuals to the American people. With immediate media assistance, radio shows, television, and concerts were donating to help fund the rebuilding of our North Eastern cities. With news channels and advertisements showing the damages of the storm to their audiences, people who were unable to see how largely the storm affect cities like New York and New Jersey were able to give to help others. For a solid month the media did a great job at helping to show the damages in New Jersey. But after a month the messages seemed to get lost. There were little to no messages at all about the cleanup and seemed to be forgotten about. Although the news stations and advertisements seemed to do a great job at first, it now seemed like they had moved on.

            Like people always say, seeing is believing. As images from the storm come across the screen they touch people’s hearts. These viewers are now able to see the horrors instead of just hear the stories. Having a lot of media coverage would promote people to help even in the smallest way. In our world today the fastest way to spread the word is through some type of media. Media coverage refuses to talk about climate change so they don’t put much time into issues such as hurricane sandy. Cable news media, in keeping up with Romney and Obama during the presidential debates; continue to ignore climate changes even though their New York offices are under water because of it. (Khalek) Media is a large deciding factor on how fast news gets to people to make them aware and how the government will also react to the situation at hand.

            The big questions is how effective is the relief effort. Going into this situation I believe the government had good intentions. Their plan of helping the victims and starting to rebuild communities just fell short. Government and government aids such as FEMA took a while before any help was even sent. Residents came together to help clean up and restore their lives to the best of their ability while they waited on the government’s aid. In times like this I think help should be sent immediately. There are plenty of ways the government and media could have sped up the process. Media had coverage on Hurricane Sandy for about a month after it took place. In my opinion the media should have kept on the issue and encourage people to continue to help and donate in any way they could to the relief, whether that be by radio, television, or even advertisements. All that media attention would cause not only more people to be willing to lend a helping hand but it would also put the spotlight on the government and force them to make arrangements for aids and materials to be sent faster. Hurricanes are traumatic experiences that can cause families to lose everything. When a storm such as hurricane Sandy takes place it should not take an extended amount of time to get help on the scene to the take care of the families affected and to start repairing all of the damage.  

            Hurricane Sandy opened the eyes of many people and showed the North Eastern coast they are just as vulnerable as any other city to hurricanes. With the media failing to cover the aftermath of the hurricane the public has seemed to forget the amount of damage that was done and is still lingering. With government agencies such as FEMA and Red Cross stepping in to help, we are forced to wonder; Are they really doing all they can do? Even though FEMA deployed 7,414 workers to assist in the relief effort, they were not positioned fast enough. (FEMA) This forced the residents of New Jersey to handle the clean-up themselves. We need the government to work faster to resolve problems within the states, as well as doing everything in their power to help the families that are left with nothing in their possession because of Hurricane Sandy.